Internet & Financial independence for women - #lifelonglearning

In september 2016 I shared my experiences as a feminist in a personal letter with 50 participants of the AGORA '16 Young Feminist Summer School of the European Women's Lobby. I - Arina Angerman - started my conscious feminist journey in 1979 when I discovered The Second Sex by Simone de Beauvoir. I bought my Penguin Book in February and read the “Translator’s Preface” and “Introduction”. At that time I studied social and political history of the 20th century in Groningen, the Netherlands, and became an active member (volunteer) of the women’s history movement in the Netherlands.

Looking back as an ‘experienced’ feminist activist I want to share with you as readers (F/M) of this blog two big challenges & inspiring experiences in my life: Internet & Financial independence for women. 

1.     Internet is a new opportunity 
In 1995 as an expert participation of women in political decision-making 

I was in between jobs and had a big challenge. I found a new inspiring 

opportunity in the world wide web! In 1995 I participated as a volunteer in 

the NGO Forum in Huairou during the United Nations 4th World’s Women Conference in Beijing (China). In Huairou I started sending emails (blogs) and learned how to use the world wide web (Internet) by developing my digital skills. At the photo below I’m the woman with the cap. 

Arina Angerman and Maja van der Velden (Antenna APC the Netherlands) e-mailen in Huairou in: Vrouwenbelangen Jaargang 60 Nr. 4 in 1995
5th September 1995 I sended an e-mail 'Women in decision making' from Huairou to Amsterdam. I wrote a.o. ''Half the world; half the power. We love power and it is okay.'' 

2.     Financial independence for women

My most challenging experience was always and still is to be financial independent as a woman. I have earned money for more than 20 years as a project (program) manager or managing director (1988-2010) by working four days a week. I have had ten different jobs by which I contributed to my personal pension. In 2015 I learned that I have a state pension gap of two years! That’s why I now have different types of income: a personal pension, work as an entrepreneur and a part time job as telemarketer. In hindsight I was able to end my love relationship with a man when I was 30+ and another man when I was 40+ because I was a feminist and financial independent.

What I know now and what I couldn’t have known when I was 25 years old: one out of three women have experienced sexual and/or physical violence in the EU. Lifelong learning of new skills can play a great role to improve women’s economic rights and independence. 

Update september 2019
My different types of income are changing. I receive a 2nd personal pension. My state pension gap diminished by 8 month. And I stopped my part time job as telemarketer. I'm still financial independent and am representing IAW in the Board of EWL 2018-2020.  
Update February 2022 I am as a woman still financial independent. I am receiving a state pension too and had to learn new eskills: i.a. how to Zoom and how to live in times of corona. I left the Board of EWL June 2021 and put my BiZ Social Media 4 Boomers on hold. Now I enjoy being a candidate at spot #22 of my political party PvdA of which I became a member in 1991, in Amsterdam during the local elections #GR2022. Lifelong learning continues now by learning how to better use Insta.

Arina Angerman is a social entrepreneur Social Media 4 Boomers and writes a.o. blogs at angermaneuropa.blogspot.com ‘Empowering women in the digital age with more #eSkills in EU - lifelong learning’

Arina for 37 years, spends 8 hours a week of her personal time to promote women’s rights & gender equality at local, regional, national or European level. I represent an EU wide organisation International Alliance of Women (founded in 1904) in the Board of European Women’s Lobby since October 2014.

Step it Up for Gender Equality in EU #EU2016NL

The Netherlands is in the first half of 2016 President of the European Union (EU2016NL). Out of the draft EU Statement at the 60^th session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women by minister (and feminist) Jet Bussemaker “The EU welcomes the commitments to gender equality, empowerment of all women and girls and the full realization of their human rights taken with the 2030 Agenda, including the Addis Ababa Action Agenda … We also applaud the inclusion of violence against women and girls in the 2030 agenda …The elimination of violence against women is a prerequisite for sustainable development … It is now time to implement what we promised … We need to fully implement SDG 5. We need to fully implement a gender equality perspective into all goals. Targets and indicators across the Agenda …For the EU, it’s of paramount importance to strengthen civil society organizations’ role as advocates for gender equality and women’s empowerment in the 2030 Agenda…
” 

Combating violence against women in EU 

A. prevention

Violence against women (VAW) is the most widespread violation of women’s human rights: one out of three women is a victim of sexual and/or physical violence in the EU. VAW is both a cause and a consequence of gender equality. The most unsafe place for women and girls is at home. Small arms like knives (which are classified as small arms), pistols and rifles are easy to buy and conceal. They give a sense of power to a partner, ex-partner, family member or acquaintance and are great threats to the safety of women and girls. Preventive measure saves states and civil society a great deal of money! Note 1

B. ratify Istanbul Convention

The European Commission has proposed for the EU to ratify the Council of Europe’s Istanbul Convention to fight violence against women. Link to press-release http://europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-549_en.htm The Istanbul Convention is the most comprehensive international treaty on combatting violence against women.  ‘’At 8 march 2016 12 EU Member States (Austria, Denmark, Finland, France, Italy, Malta, Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Slovenia, Spain, Sweden) had already ratified the Convention. ‘’ Note 2 

Nice to know too the European Commission wants to dedicate the year 2017 to ending violence against women. Note 3 Banning of small arms must be part of this European Year on Combating Violence Against Women too!

Notes 

1. Out of text of the adopted IAW emergency motion at EWL General Assembly 2015.05.31 http://womenalliance.org/banning-of-small-arms-must-be-part-of-european-year-on-combating-violence-against-women

2. EWL welcomes the European Commission proposal for the EU to access the Istanbul Convention 2016.03.08 Please read more information at http://www.womenlobby.org/EWL-welcomes-the-European-Commission-proposal-for-the-EU-to-access-the-Istanbul?lang=en 2016.04.27 26 EU Member States have signed the Istanbul Convention http://www.womenlobby.org/26-EU-MS-have-signed-the-Istanbul-Convention-Will-Latvia-and-Czech-Republic-be?lang=en

3. http://www.womenlobby.org/EWL-and-EU-Commissioner-Jourova-share-opportunities-for-women-s-rights-in?lang=en 2016.02.11

Author
Arina Angerman is living in Amsterdam and is representing IAW in Board of European Women's Lobby (EWL). Content of this blog is her contribution to digital Newsletter - April 2016 of International Alliance of Women. 
Arina Angerman is an Activist, Blogger and Consultant. Please read additional information at website Social Media 4 Boomers (in Dutch).

Equal representation of women in (Online) Media? #Beijing20

One of the strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action '95 is ‘Increase the participation and access of women to expression and decision-making in and through the media and the new technologies of communication.’ In 2015 the (inter)national community is celebrating the 20th anniversary of this fundamental human rights instrument for women and girls adopted in 1995.
Did you know that only 16% of photos in European newspaper show women over 45 years of age (according to the project “You can’t be what you can’t see”)? In the EU, women account for only 24% of people that we hear and read about in the news. Only 4% of the news coverage is against stereotypical portrayel. Note 1 In May 2015, European Women's Lobby (EWL) demands ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall …a fair and equal representation of women in the media in Europe’.

#Beijing20 & Twitter

During the past decade, advances in information technology have facilitated a global communications network that transcends national boundaries. One of the challenges is that women who write on the Internet and participate in social media, on blogs and other online forums, meet increasing hostility and harassment. This is a way to silence women’s voices in the public sphere.

At my public sphere Twitter account - @ArinaNoel - I retweeted an infographic of women in the media by UN Women. Note 2 There are around 2 Billion active social media accounts. Roughly half of social media users are women. Feminist hashtags - # - that have added to global conversations on gender inequality are #Beijing20 #HeForShe and #EverydaySexism The # symbol, called hashtag, is used to mark keywords or topics in a Tweet. 

How Far are We from Gender Equality?
Representing Vrouwenbelangen I attended a China-Netherlands Dialogue event Paneldiscussion about Women's rights on May 20th 2015 in Amsterdam. Ardi Bouwers presented a report on behalf of Radio Netherlands Worldwide (RNW) on the (in)equality and representation of women in media. 
"Bringing media accountability into the struggle for gender equality was the original impetus for the Global Media Monitoring Project (GMMP)... Every five years since 1995, the GMMP has documented trends in the portrayal and representation of women and men in news media discourse and imagery." page 6

GMMP 2015 Preview May 2015, page 11

Summary of GMMP 2015 Preview ''women's presence in media hasn't changed much in the past 20 years, if this rate of change continues, it will take at least 40 years to reach equality." page 12

Do you want to help IAW at Facebook and Twitter?
International Alliance of Women (IAW) publishes and shares news in accordance with the focus at the website. At the time of writing this blog IAW has at Facebook 757 likes and at Twitter @Womenalliance has 354 followers. 

Part of flyer IAW

IAW is an international non-governmental, feminist organisation. It works for the empowerment of women, the promotion of women's human rights and gender equality globally. Founded in 1904 and based in Geneva. 
IAW has general consultative status to ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) since the beginning of the UN - 1947. 
Do you want to like, share, comment, follow or RT (ReTweet)? Please help us with small actions for gender equality!

Note 1 Read more in factsheet

From Words to Action 1995-2015 A European Women’s Lobby review of the activities of the European Union p 26-27 

Note 2 http://beijing20.unwomen.org/en/infographic/media

Blogger Arina Angerman 
is representing International Alliance of Women (IAW) in the Policy Committee of the European Women's Lobby (EWL). 
In 1995 Arina participated in the NGO Forum in Huairou during the United Nations 4th World's Women Conference in Beijing. During this NGO Forum she started sending emails as a reporter and learned how to use the world wide web as an activist. 
Arina is a consultant in how to use social media as a board member, entrepreneur or manager: Social Media 4 (Baby) Boomers

Women's economic independence and austerity measures: Economy #Beijing20 & EWL

One of the strategic objectives of the Beijing Platform for Action ’95 is ‘Promote women’s economic rights and independence …’ Women and the economy is one of the interdependent 12 critical areas of concern in this Platform for Action.
After 20 years the gender pay gap remains a major issue within the EU as women workers on average earn 16% less than men. A worrying development is the widening gender pension pay gap which stand at 39% within the EU. The gender pension gap shows that gender inequalities accumulate throughout women’s lives and that a life-cycle approach to women’s economic independence is urgently needed.

Women’s economic independence is the foundation of all rights. EWL’s key demands to the European Union and the Member States are a.o.

- Guarantee the individualization of social security and taxation rights in order to break women’s dependency on their partners and/or the State;

- Close the gender pay gap by 2020 and set targets to close the pension gap;

- Use Gender Budgeting as a standard methodology of all public budget processes;

Austerity measures
Austerity measures have a huge effect on women, both as workers in the public sector and users of public services. Moreover, women bear a disproportionate share of tax burdens, as they use larger portions of their income on food and basis goods for the household. Did you see the European Women’s Lobby (EWL) video-clip “A she-(re)cession. What does austerity mean for women in Europe?”? (2013) Note 1

The EWL publication (January 2015) Women's Economic Independence in Times of Austerity (Note 3) is using a gender equality and feminist lens in Country Profiles of Scotland, Slovenia, Sweden (Gender Budgeting), Greece and Italy (Social Enterprises). Social entrepreneurship can be a promising avenue through which women can empower themselves and others.

Joanna Manganara, Board Member since 2004 and President since 2013 of International Alliance of Women, is telling the story of Greece in an interview. Quote "It is also important ... to see women ... as actors of change in political decision-making." 

Let's take action and bring words into reality

How can we get to a feminist economic model? 
By a.o. Democratise the EU semester process through the participation of the EP and women's organisations.

From Words to Action
Will you read & share EWL’s factsheet about Women and the Economy?
Please get involved! Note 3

Note 1 

EWL clip ‘A she-(re)cession What does austerity mean to women in Europe?' https:/www.youtube.com/watch?v=euIp9VdKzFk
Note 2 
EWL publication Women's Economic Independence in Times of Austerity January 2015

Note 3 
EWL 'From Words to Action' 2015 Calendar and Factsheet at
http://www.womenlobby.org/news/ewl-news/article/ewl-beijing-20-in-january-women-s?lang=en 
Note 4 
This blog is follow-up Action as written in blog 'Connecting feminists by social media'. Do you want to help IAW and EWL at Facebook and Twitter to share information and spreading knowledge? How you can help is described in this blog 'Connecting ...' 

Blogger Arina Angerman
is representing International Alliance of Women (IAW) in the Policy Committee of the European Women's Lobby (EWL). She is a consultant in how to use social media as a board member, entrepreneur or manager: Social Media 4 (Baby) Boomers

Connecting feminists by social media: IAW Board Meeting, EWL Policy Committee and #Beijing20

IAW Board Meeting: equal rights = equal responsibilities

logo of IAW is Justice Woman in yellow

In october 2014 24 members of the extended IAW Board met in Sion, Switzerland. The International Alliance of Women (IAW) is an international NGO comprising of more than 40 member organisations involved in the promotion of women's human rights and gender equality, and of the empowerment of women and girls around the world. 
IAW is a non-political and feminist organisation founded in 1904 and based in Geneva. Subtitle of IAW is Equal Rights - Equal Responsibilities. IAW has general consultative status in ECOSOC (Economic and Social Council) since the beginning of the UN - 1947. Since October 2013 IAW has a new website www.womenalliance.org According to president Joanna Manganara the website is 'face and voice to the world'. (note 1)
 
Do you want to help IAW at Facebook and Twitter?
On Facebook news from IAW is published and news from other NGO's, newspapers or individuals is shared in accordance with the focus of IAW. At the time of writing this blog Facebook IAW has 550 likes. Womenalliance at Twitter has 240 followers. According to Lene Pind, head of Communications Unit, 'It is a rather informal medium, but very effective and very fast'.
Result of my inventarisation: 11 of the women attending the Board Meeting are using Facebook and 5 are using Twitter. 
International Alliance of Women as a NGO has a glorious past and has to work on getting a glorious future. The individual members and their organisations are encouraged to like, share, post, comment, follow and RT (ReTweet)! 'The board ... decided that the further development of these social media was to be pursued.'

New Policy Committee of European Women's Lobby 
130 ´Phenomenal Woman´ members of EWL, representing EU countries and European-wide organisations, attended the General Assembly in Lisbon in October. European Women's Lobby (EWL) is the largest umbrella organisation of more than 2000 women's associations in the European Union (EU), working to promote women's rights and equality between women and men.

Arina Angerman (left) of IAW an European-wide organisation from Amsterdam was elected as representative to new Policy Committee / Board of Administration and Marion Boeker (right), Vice-President for IAW European Membership from Berlin is alternate. Arina continues the representation at EWL of Joanna Manganara, president IAW, from Athens. The new Policy Committee of EWL has 38 elected members.

Beijing20
The international community will celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Platform for Action, a fundamental human rights instrument for women and girls adopted in 1995. Marion and I attended the launch of EWL's Beijing+20 report in Lisbon.

EWL demands as actions a.o. women as agents of change for a sustainable people-centred world. IAW too wants emphasis on women as agents of change in their essential contribution to solutions of problems. European Women´s Lobby is posting or sharing every day at Facebook and already has 17500 likes!

Goal of IAW representative at EWL will be 
--- to share information and spreading knowledge by Twitter or Facebook in order to strenghten the visibility of IAW and EWL at social media by posting or sharing at least twice a week (social media mobilisation)

--- From Words to Action 2015 Beijing20 Calendar of EWL ...
let´s make 3 months to take action from words by writing a blog 
** European´s Women´s Voice publication on women´s Economic Independence in Times of Austerity (blog published at Febr 22th) note 2
** Connecting generations of feminists by using modern technology - blog published at May 28th (we work on capacity building and mutual learning = lifelong learning)
** Campaign For A Europe free from violence against women (International Day to End Violence against Women Nov 25th)

Call to a doable action!? Please join
 International Alliance of Women or European Women´s Lobby or Arina Angerman or Marion Boeker at Twitter in order to follow, share and engage with their activities for Gender Equality or Equal Rights = Equal Responsibilities F/M or Social Media + Women´s Rights = The Future!

   note 1. in Reports for IAW Board Meeting Sion, Switzerland 2014 Compiled by Lene Pind, head of Communications Unit

note 2. From Words to Action: launched on 26th of January 2015 a special edition of the EWL magazine 'European Women's Voice: Women's Economic Independence in Times of Austerity' 

Minder belastingparadijs NL door minder belastingontwijking in de EU

Een rechtvaardiger belastingstelsel in NL en de EU is een maatschappelijk thema waaraan ik sinds 2012 werk vanuit mijn politieke politieke partij in Amsterdam door samen met andere afdelingen een motie of amendement in te dienen op het landelijke PvdA Congres. (noot 1) Mijn eigen bijdrage is een Column 'Van Belastingparadijs naar Burgerparticipatiefonds in Amsterdam' uit maart 2013. (noot 2) En vervolgens regelmatig berichten plaatsen of delen op Twitter en Facebook over belastingontwijking en wat te doen. (noot 3)

Het belastingparadijs NL

Het in de vakantie gelezen boek is de geactualiseerde editie van Het belastingparadijs uit 2013. Ik kocht het bij Boekhandel Van Pampus op de KNSM-laan in Amsterdam. Het boek is door (voormalige) Quote journalisten Martin van Geest, Joost van Kleef en Henk Willem Smits en huidige D66 stemmers (p. 243) soepel geschreven en leest erg gemakkelijk. Spannend vind ik de hoofdstukken over de historische ontwikkeling van fiscaal vriendelijk onderhandelen in belastingparadijs NL en de rol van de VOC (p. 242), Duitsland en de Antillen daarin. En natuurlijk het hoofdstuk "Hollands Hollywood'' over Rolling Stones, U2 en dj's, en in "Naheffing" over ABBA, David Bowie (p. 262) en het bericht over De Nederlandsche Bank op @Quotenet 'DNB: acht op de tien (onderzochte) trustkantoren zijn (nog steeds) boevennesten' (p. 263).

RT door @ArinaNoel     Robert Went @went1955

 · Jul 25

Money money money.... "ABBA routes royalties through Dutch tax system, says new book" — Dutchnews — http://goo.gl/0ytveP  

Om hoeveel Euro's en mensen gaat 't?

Hoeveel geld stroomt er volgens Het belastingparadijs fiscaal vriendelijk door Nederland? ''80 van de 100 grootste bedrijven ter wereld fiscaliseren in onze kleine polder (p. 98)''. Op het terrein van elektronica zijn dat Samsung, Apple en Toshiba en in de telecom Telefónica en Vodafone. Het gaat om zo'n 6.200 'dossiers' - ''buitenlandse bedrijven die in Nederland een fiscaalvriendelijke belastingconstructie hebben opgetuigd (p. 101)''. Zij sluisden in 2010 5.100 miljard euro aan dividenden, rente en royalty's door NL: een erg groot fiscaal doorvoerland! Dit is ''een bedrag ter grootte van tien procent van de wereldeconomie'' (p. 223) 
Door een aangenomen motie van de Tweede Kamerleden Bruno Braakhuis (GroenLinks) en Ed Groot (PvdA) wordt in 2012 bekend dat in 2009 de belastingopbrengsten van 'buitenlandse' vennootschappen bijna een half miljard is = 0,0095% heffing van 5.100 miljard (p. 111/2). Negen op de tien van deze 'buitenlandse' bedrijven hebben in NL niemand op de loonlijst staan. (p. 102). Er werken zo'n 3.700 mensen - 0,04% van de beroepsbevolking - voor deze bedrijven zoals trustkantoren, notarissen, advocaten, belastingadviseurs, accountants en andere dienstverlenende professionals in hotels, restaurants en taxi's. Deze 'buitenlandse' bedrijven profiteren van allerlei voorzieningen zoals onderwijs, veiligheid en recht waar het midden- en kleinbedrijf en burgers heel veel meer belasting voor betalen. Hoe gaat maatschappelijk verantwoord ondernemen en het nieuwe belastingplan zorgen voor minder belastingontwijking en voor eerlijke belasting?

Europese Unie biedt kansen!

Ook vele bedrijven uit EU-landen als Portugal, Griekenland en Spanje maken gebruik van belastingontwijking via Nederland. Terwijl Nederland garant staat voor vele miljarden euro´s (17,7) in verband met de reddingspakketten en noodsteun (p. 232/3). En Nederlandse multinationals als Unilever, Philips en DSM met hun kapitaal fiscaal naar België vluchten (p. 241). 
Wat kan de EU aan belastingontwijking gaan doen oftewel aan 'fair tax share'? Verplichting tot country-by-country reporting zoals in de VS (p. 240) en/of één 'Europa-breed' vennootschapsbelastingstelsel - common consolidated corporate tax base (CCTB) (p. 237).

En inspirerend voorstel dat ik las in de Volkskrant op 17 september 2014 over OESO rapport als voorstel voor G20 om een einde te maken aan 'treaty-shopping': ''het oneigenlijk gebruik maken van belastingverdragen die landen met elkaar sluiten''.

Paul Tang @paultang op 7 mei 2014 Band @jspvda als luid protest bij brievenbusfirma Samen met @MDEmmelkamp plan tegen belastingontwijking in bus gedaan

pic.twitter.com/QeKKlnMg5C

Gedeelde tweet van PvdA lijsttrekker Paul Tang tijdens de campagne voor de EP verkiezingen. Op de Herengracht in Amsterdam bij de brievenbusfirma van Rolling Stones en U2.

Noten
1. Overgenomen amendement (37) voor PvdA Verkiezingsprogramma Europees Parlement in februari 2014 ‘’We gaan voor een intensivering van de bestrijding van misbruik van de BTW en benaderen initiatieven daarvoor positief. De BTW is een belangrijke inkomensbron voor de EU en verdient bij uitstek een halsstarrige verdediging tegen ontwijking, uitholling en misbruik.” 
2. Column 'Van Belastingparadijs naar Burgerparticipatiefonds in Amsterdam' uit maart 2013. 
3. RT van campagne aanpak belastingontwijking in de UK 

Arina Angerman @ArinaNoel · Aug 15

"@ActionAidUK Tired of big companies getting away with #taxdodging? Ask your local council to take action http://po.st/hALjDg " #Town